


Crestfallen on the Landing

by kozmize



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Gen, Mental Health Issues, Psych Ward, psychiatric ward, savior complexes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:22:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28238385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kozmize/pseuds/kozmize
Summary: All his achievements and ideals amounted to nothing as the killing game went off the air and the actors were told to leave the set permanently- but Shuichi wouldn't let go of that life so easily.
Kudos: 6





	Crestfallen on the Landing

Ejecting them from the killing game effectively declawed and defanged them beyond recognition. No longer was Shuichi the Ultimate Detective, nor Kokichi the Ultimate Supreme Leader, nor Maki the assassin. They’d been reduced to mere nothings, whispers on the street, and gossip on tv. They’d live out the rest of their lackluster lives in the shadows of who they once impersonated so convincingly. Far cries of their old selves, they were no longer ultimates, much less people- they were imposters. The reality hit Shuichi mercilessly. He’d never solved the crime scenes, they fed him the answers. He’d never outwitted anybody, he was  _ meant  _ to win. The curtain had been pulled and the reality was much harsher than he thought it’d be.

Everyone was alive, there was that, but at the cost of their humanity. They’d escaped the killing game, been applauded as stellar actors, and graciously thanked. Most of all, they’d been thoroughly compensated for their prior consent to go in memory wiped. But all that money and access to resources meant nothing as they sat in the common room of the most esteemed psychiatric ward in Japan. Not that it mattered, nothing mattered anymore. 

Shuichi laid back on his chair, watching as Kaito shuffled a deck of cards in preparation for perhaps his fifteenth game against Ryoma and Kokichi. They wore subtle smiles on their faces that reminded Shuichi of their former personas. He could tell from the past weeks that they’d been truly putting in the effort for their treatment. _ They could be discharged and lead better lives, that must have been what they were telling themselves. _ And what a helpless delusion that was, Shuichi thought. All the outside would see was a depressed tennis player, a lying instigator, and an overzealous idiot. And behind that, a band of phonies and fakes. 

To focus on the future would be in vain, there was nothing left for them out there. Shuichi preferred to keep his thoughts in the realm of yesterday- when he was a captivating detective who’d developed from a meek, doubtful, subservient boy to the righteous, perceptive young man he was now.

He could never settle for anything less than the role he’d assumed. He was charged with saving the world, and he did it  _ dammit _ . What came after was trivial, mundane, even vial to some extent. 

He’d never be that personage again but he’d never accept anyone subduing him to nothing more than an actor. 

Shuichi Saihara was all he knew and he’d keep that with him until he rotted away. 

**Author's Note:**

> \- Title inspired by Champagne Problems by Taylor Swift


End file.
